Samenvatting

On 2 February 2006, after earlier Dutch contributions in Afghanistan, a large parliamentary majority approved the Cabinet decision to deploy a mission to Uruzgan. On 3 February 2006 the decision was confirmed in the meeting of the Cabinet. This brought to a close the political decision making process which had lasted for more than a year and had been fraught with difficulty. It had put great pressure on the relations between the coalition partners CDA, VVD and D66 in the Balkenende II Cabinet, it had led to the departure of D66 chairman of the parliamentary party Boris Dittrich and it signified the beginning of one of the most perilous Dutch missions since WWII. Why does a decision making process take so much time and why is it so difficult? The author reconstructs the decision making process prior to the mission to Uruzgan. From the first sounding up to the parliamentary debate it is described as completely as possible. The reconstruction is based on a survey of open sources, such as media and parliamentary letters and interviews with persons involved. The article is rounded off with an observation on the reconstruction, followed by conclusions.